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=> Speak of the Devil!

Speak of the Devil!
Posted by Ajim Shoraelookh (Guest) - Thursday, October 20 2005, 0:50:36 (CEST)
from 70.236.146.177 - ppp-70-236-146-177.dsl.sfldmi.ameritech.net Network - Windows XP - Mozilla
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beezelbub wrote:
>Benjamin Franklin owes the continued brilliance of America, if it is to have any, >to QUEERS!!! If they can breathe freely in the sun then we will have left the >Dark Christian Ages behind for good.

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Jurors deliberate in prison rape suit
Angela K. Brown, Associated Press
published Tuesday, October 18, 2005

WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- After hearing nearly four weeks of testimony, jurors began their first full day of deliberations Tuesday in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by a gay inmate who says he was repeatedly raped by prison gangs while corrections workers refused to help him.

Six Texas Department of Criminal Justice employees are accused of showing deliberate indifference in failing to protect Roderick Keith Johnson, and of violating the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

The jury started deliberations Monday, spending about two hours on the case, and resumed Tuesday.

Johnson was sold as a sex slave by gangs during his 18 months at the Allred Unit near Wichita Falls, while prison officials never investigated his reports of abuse or moved him to a safer area, his attorneys said Monday in closing arguments.

Johnson, 37, spent nearly four years in prison after violating the terms of his probation from a 10-year sentence for burglarizing a house. He is seeking unspecified damages from assistant warden Richard Wathen, four corrections officers and an administrative technician.

"Being violently assaulted in prison is simply not part of the penalty that criminal offenders pay for their offenses against society," said his lead attorney, Margaret Winter, who is associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project.

Jurors deliberate in prison rape suit

(Page: 2 of 2)
published Tuesday, October 18, 2005

But David A. Harris of the Texas Attorney General's Office, representing the defendants, said there was no proof of the rapes and that Johnson lied under oath about several things. Johnson testified he had not used cocaine in several months, but his parole officer testified that after failing a drug test Johnson admitted taking drugs in recent weeks.

"Somebody's lying to you, and who's got the most motivation?" Harris said during his closing arguments, saying Johnson wrote a letter telling his lover they would get money from his lawsuit.

The defendants and other prison employees testified that they followed procedures in considering Johnson's claims and in denying his requests for transfer. They said Johnson usually seemed upbeat.


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Jurors reject Texas prison rape lawsuit
Angela K. Brown, Associated Press
published Wednesday, October 19, 2005

WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- Six prison officials were found not liable Tuesday in a federal lawsuit claiming they violated a gay convict's constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment by ignoring his pleas for protection from inmate rapes.

Roderick Keith Johnson, 37, had sought unspecified damages against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials at the Allred Unit near Wichita Falls, where he was housed for 18 months for burglary.

"I think the trial will have made a difference even though it didn't go our way," said Johnson's attorney, Margaret Winter. "I really think it's been a wake-up call to public officials in Texas."

The defendants smiled and hugged their attorneys and each other after the verdict was read. The jury of six men and six women deliberated nearly eight hours over two days.

Johnson, whose nearly four-year prison term ended in 2003, testified that prison gangs forced him to be their sex slave while the officials never investigated his reports of abuse or kept him in a safer area for vulnerable inmates.

The defendants and other prison employees testified they could not substantiate Johnson's half a dozen or so rape claims because he changed his stories or there was no medical evidence. They said Johnson usually seemed upbeat in prison, wearing tight pants and flirting with a corrections officer.

Jurors reject Texas prison rape lawsuit

(Page: 2 of 2)
published Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Juror Randy Shelton, 43, said he didn't think there was enough evidence of the assaults. "He probably was (raped), but he never came out with a rape test," Shelton said.

Named in the suit were: assistant warden Richard Wathen; corrections officers Jimmy Bowman, Tommy Norwood, David Taylor and Onessimo Ranjel; and administrative technician Tracy Kuyava. All still work at Allred except Ranjel, who is a state trooper.

"The jury's ruling shows a tremendous confidence in our ability to do our jobs professionally and without bias," the defendants said in a statement, declining further comment.

Each of them occasionally sat on a three-member committee that decides whether to move inmates to safer areas, based on prisoners' "life endangerment claims."

Defense attorney David A. Harris said Johnson lied under oath about several things, including his cocaine use.

Johnson testified about nine hours over three days, saying some employees made fun of him during committee hearings and told him to fight the other inmates or get a boyfriend for protection. Five current prisoners testified, including one who said inmates had sex with Johnson and paid the prison gang that owned him with commissary items worth $3 to $7.

Johnson was moved to another prison in 2002 and didn't report any sexual assaults during his 20 months there.

Last year a Wichita Falls grand jury did not indict 49 prisoners Johnson had accused of rape.



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